Is God displeased with His Church?

Those who look to heaven -- literally -- for signs and portents might be forgiven for believing that God is really really displeased with what's going on in His Church. Three bad omens have been seen in and about Rome in less than a month.

On February 11th Benedict XVI announced his resignation from the papacy -- the first by a true pope since Celestine V in the 13th century. On that very night, the heavens struck the St. Peter's with a spectacular lightning bolt, which hit the top of the basilica's dome. A stunning metaphor for the highest levels of the Church?

Just over two weeks later, on February 27th, a publicity stunt which was supposed to show how pleased God is with Vatican II went horribly awry. From his balcony, the Holy Father released a dove which was supposed to represent "the Spirit of Vatican II". Walt thinks a cuckoo would have been more appropriate.

Anyway, a dove it was. As the picture shows, the dove was barely out of the Pope's hands when, from out of nowhere, a murderous seagull swooped down and attacked him. The angry bird [TM? Ed.] also routed the dove, while thousands looked on in silence from the piazza of St. Peter's.

You've heard that bad things happen in threes? Well, on Tuesday, as the princes of the Church converged on Rome to squabble over who shall be the next pope, Heaven sent them a third sign. Mount Etna, some 300 miles away, lit up the Roman sky, unleashing a barrage of volcanic bombs and heavy ash hurtling hundreds of feet into the air. Towering fountains of lava -- veritable pillars of fire -- were to be seen.

What does it all mean? Is it just that nature has gone mad? Or could it be that God intends to destroy the Church he founded nearly 2000 years ago, which evil men have corrupted beyond saving. There is a precedent, you know.

Precedent? Walt refers to the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrha mentioned in the Old Testament -- Genesis 10:19 and Deuteronomy 29:23 and elsewhere -- the New Testament, and even in the Quran.

Even secular writers, and the criminal codes of many countries, refer to the sins of Sodom and Gomorrha for which the two cities were destroyed by fire and brimstone. In Abrahamic traditions, Sodom and Gomorrha have become synonymous with impenitent sin, and their fall with a proverbial manifestation of God's wrath.

Ever since, Sodom and Gomorrha have been used as metaphors for homosexuality and other deviant and degenerate vices. Their example has given rise to words in several languages, including the English word sodomy , which describes sexual crimes against nature, including anal sex -- either homosexual or heterosexual -- and bestiality.

What does God think, then, of the "Lavender Mob", the ring of practising homosexual priests and bishops "doing their thing" within the very walls of the Vatican. Here's a telling passage from the Epistle of St. Jude the Apostle:

(3) ...I was under a necessity to write unto you: to beseech you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.
(4) For certain men are secretly entered in... Ungodly men, turning the grace of our Lord God into riotousness, and denying the only sovereign Ruler, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
(5) ...Jesus, having saved the people...did afterwards destroy them that believed not:
(6) And the angels who kept not their principality, but forsook their own habitation, he hath reserved under darkness in everlasting chains, unto the judgment of the great day.
(7) As Sodom and Gomorrha...in like manner, having given themselves to fornication, and going after other flesh, were made an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
(8) In like manner these men also defile the flesh, and despise dominion, and blaspheme majesty.

A little food for thought for the Cardinals, as they begin their deliberations.